Ag Policy Blog

Trump Declares US Will Withdraw from TPP

If there were any doubt, President-elect Donald Trump made it clear in a video released late Monday that he would withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in one of his first executive actions once taking office in January.

In the 2-minute-and-37-second YouTube video, Trump said in his plan to restore wealth to America that he will drop out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, cut regulations on energy, launch an immigration investigation and implement sweeping changes to lobbyist ethics regarding former federal officials.

Trump said he was providing an update to the American people on the transition and his first 100 days in office. He called the transition process "smooth and efficient" before turning to some of his agenda items that he said would create wealth and jobs for American workers.

"My agenda will be based on a simple core principle -- putting America first," Trump said. "Whether it's producing steel, building cars or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here on our great homeland, America."

Trump said he has asked his transition team for a list of executive actions on the first day of office "to restore our laws and bring back our jobs -- it's about time."

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The first item on that agenda included issuing a notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump called "a potential disaster for our country." Instead, Trump said the U.S. would negotiate bilateral trade deals "that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores."

TPP is a 12-country trade deal in the Pacific Rim that President Barack Obama's administration has touted would eliminate tariffs on more than 18,000 U.S. products. Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan are all part of the trade pact, along with Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Chile and Peru. Most commodity and agricultural groups have aggressively supported the trade pact. Still, Trump made ending the TPP a major part of his populist campaign.

On energy, Trump made it clear he would dial back regulatory restrictions on exploration or production of fossil fuels. By doing so, the president-elect indicated that unleashing such production would lead to millions of new jobs. Trump said he would cancel "job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy, including shale energy and clean coal, creating many millions of high-paying jobs. That's what we want. That's what we've been waiting for."

Trump did not offer details about other regulatory changes except to say he would create a rule that says for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. "So important," Trump said of the proposal.

Tying infrastructure to national security, Trump said he asked the Department of Defense and chairman joint chiefs to create a plan to protect vital infrastructure from "cyberattacks and all other forms of attacks."

Regarding immigration, Trump said his first action would be to direct the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker.

Trump's ethics reform agenda seemed to target and limit the job opportunities for outgoing Obama administration officials. Trump said that, "as part of our plan to drain the swamp, we will impose a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists after they leave the administration, and a lifetime ban on executive officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government."

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Chris Clayton

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